Coming May 1, 2025
Go On Pretending
Three generations of women battle against the tides of history, from segregated 1950s America to the fall of the USSR and the rise of revolutionary Rojava.
By Alina Adams
Rose Janowitz is a pioneer in the 1950s golden age of television, as she navigates the transition from radio to TV soap operas. But beneath the glitz and glamor lies a web of secrets. Rose's radical past and her hidden romance with Jonas Cain, the African-American leading man who made Guiding Light a hit on radio. How long will Rose be able to hide Jonas Cain’s identity—and their romantic relationship—from the public, and from Irna Phillips, the formidable doyenne who invented the soap-opera, a woman who makes—and breaks—professional careers on a whim.
In the 1980s, Rose’s daughter Emma Kagan abandons her privileged life in the USSR as the daughter of high-profile American defectors, to return to the country of her parents’ birth just as Mikhail Gorbachev announces the new openness known as glasnost. In the US, Emma navigates the hypocrisy and inherent contradictions of the political left and the right, as the collapse of the Soviet Union sends her scrambling for survival. Emma’s search for a place to fully belong finds her looking for personal freedom in the strangest of places—with unexpected and often life-threatening results.
In 2012, Libby, Emma's daughter and Rose's granddaughter, embarks on a bold journey to Rojava, Syria, joining the Women’s Revolution. Her search for utopia pulls Rose and Emma into the fray, where family secrets long buried are unearthed amid the anarchy of war.
New York Times bestselling author Alina Adams brings her unique perspective as an Soviet immigrant to the US who mastered English through soap operas to this multilayered tale. With a background in broadcast communications and a history of writing compelling narratives, Adams captures the essence of each era with authenticity and emotional depth. From the author of the acclaimed historical novel My Mother’s Secret, Go On Pretending offers a powerful exploration of the struggles for personal freedom and the enduring strength of family bonds.
Alina Adams is the NYT-bestselling author of soap-opera tie-ins, figure-skating mysteries, romance, and historical novels. Born in Odessa, USSR, Adams immigrated to the United States at age seven and learned to speak English by watching American Soap Operas. After receiving her B.A. and M.A. in broadcast communications at San Francisco State University, Adams worked in television as a writer and researcher. Years later she penned the As The World Turns book tie-in, Oakdale Confidential, which became a New York Times bestseller. Her first historical novel, The Nesting Dolls, is a Soviet-Jewish historical novel published by HarperCollins in July 2020. My Mother’s Secret, published by History Through Fiction in November 2022, provides readers a rare glimpse into the world's first Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidzhan while exploring universal themes of identity, love, loss, war, and parenthood. Adams lives in New York City with her husband and their three children.